Samuel Barber – Music for a Scene from Shelly
Antonin Dvorak – Cello Concerto, Quirine Viersen, cellist
Aaron Jay Kernis – Newly Drawn Sky
Leonard Bernstein – Suite from On the Waterfront
Last night (Saturday) we played the first concert of this week’s classical series run. It’s an interesting program, all related to American music or America. Three of the works (Barber, Kernis and Bernstein) were written by American composers, and the Dvorak concerto was largely written in New York City.
The Barber is an incredibly powerful and beautiful piece. The writing, one can tell, is obviously influenced by the famous Philadelphia sound being cultivated by Leopold Stowkowski, with lush string writing and powerful brass climaxes (though it received its premiere with the New York Philharmonic). It’s a piece that you don’t often get to hear live, and it is totally worth it to experience the rich orchestral tapestry in the concert hall. It is quite amazing that Barber showed this sort of mastery at the tender age of 23.
The Dvorak is a piece that needs no introduction, but the cellist does. Quirine Viersen, a Dutch cellist, is making her US debut in these concerts. Her playing of the piece is deeply heartfelt, technically commanding, and musically complex and interesting.
Jun Iwaski’s duets with the solo cello were spirited and avoided the typical grandstanding overplaying that they often get from other concertmasters. Quirine stays on for the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Jun Iwasaki and Arnaldo Cohen in next week’s Beethoven Festival.
Aaron Jay Kernis is a favorite contemporary composer of Carlos’, and Newly Drawn Sky is one of several of Kernis’ works he has recorded with the Grant Park Festival Orchestra. It’s another piece, like the Barber, that is immensely colorful and evocative, and shows off the orchestra to great effect. The percussion section (augmented by two players) gets a big workout in this piece, and they did a great job last night.
Finally, Bernstein’s On the Waterfront Suite is one of his most powerful and impressive pieces, consisting of several episodes that were truncated during the editing process of the stunning Elia Kazan film starring Marlon Brando, Karl Maden, Rod Steiger, and Eve Marie Saint. Principal horn John Cox sounds amazing in the opening horn solo, as does Assistant principal flutist Alicia DiDonato Paulsen in her beautiful love scene solos. Principal Trumpet Jeffrey Work deserves notice, too, for his powerful lead trumpet playing at the shattering conclusion to the Suite.
Here’s the Oregonian review of last night’s concert.